


Crashing into those DMs

by write_lets_do_this



Category: SK8 the Infinity (Anime)
Genre: Gay, M/M, Sk8 the Infinity - Freeform, renga
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-06
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-12 04:27:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29879058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/write_lets_do_this/pseuds/write_lets_do_this
Summary: Reki knew it had been a bad idea to go watch Langa skate. But he still found himself watching, rapt, as Langa sped down the track. What he wasn't expecting though, was for Langa to notice him, right at the end of the race.And that was when things went crashing out of control.
Relationships: Hasegawa Langa & Kyan Reki, Hasegawa Langa/Kyan Reki, Nanjo Kojiro | Joe/Sakurayashiki Kaoru | Cherry Blossom
Comments: 2
Kudos: 229





	Crashing into those DMs

**Author's Note:**

> This is following on from the end of episode 8, and is partly a prediction for episode 9, but mostly just Renga fluff/angst/general gayness 
> 
> Hope you enjoy reading it :D

Reki already regretted coming to watch Langa skate. He’d already said that this had nothing to do with him, even if he knew it was a blatant lie. He’d been the one to bring Langa into skating; in some inexplicable way, he’d always be tied to Langa.

  


But as Langa came rushing down the slope, just feet behind Joe, Reki couldn’t help but be reminded of how far behind them he was. If he’d been up against either of them, they’d have left him in the dust ages ago.

  


Even now, Reki could see Langa’s improvement since the last time he’d watched him. The way he seemed just that bit more aware of how he was moving. Though, every time Langa stepped on the board, it was like magic. There was something in the way that Langa skated that had this thrill to it, something that made it almost impossible to look away.

  


So as Langa hurtled towards the finish line, still gaining on Joe, Reki found his eyes glued to the blue-haired boy. It came almost as a surprise to him when Langa looked right back, after a moment of scanning the crowd.

  


They were staring at each other, even as Langa raced ever closer to the end, though still not quite level with Joe.

  


_Reki._

  


He could see his name formed on Langa’s lips, a moment where the two of them were the only ones in existence. Everyone else at the bottom of the track faded away, until it was only Langa and him, eyes locked across the distance. For a whole second, the world seemed to stay frozen like that.

  


And then Langa dropped out of sight.

  


Reki had hidden himself towards the back of the crowd, meaning that as Langa shot forward, he lost view of him completely for a moment. But when everyone in front of him collectively silenced, Reki felt his stomach drop.

  


The horde of bodies moved easily out of the way as Reki pushed past, not worrying about whether anyone would recognise him there until he was sure Langa was fine. When he’d got close enough to be able to make out what had stunned everyone into momentary silence, he froze.

  


Langa was lying on the track, out cold. One arm was bent back at an unnatural angle, presumably where Langa had tried to break his fall before crashing completely. For a minute, Reki couldn’t move. And then he could, dashing straight to Langa, trying to figure out how badly Langa had been hurt.

  


He certainly needed to go to hospital, that much he could tell from just looking. As he leaned closer, he could see Langa’s chest heaving up and down. He wasn’t dead, at least.

  


“That kid needs to go to hospital. I’ll carry him back up to the top of the track.” Joe leaned over behind Reki, shocking him out of his panic long enough to get to his feet.

  


He heaved Langa into his arms, ignoring Joe’s protests. Sure, the man could probably carry Langa as easily as a bag of rice, but Reki couldn’t bring himself to let go of Langa. He had to make sure that Langa was okay before he let him go and returned to his state of aimlessly drifting away from S.

  


By the time he made it to the top of the slope, his arms were numb. Joe had Langa’s skateboard, but was watching Reki warily, as if waiting for the moment that he might drop Langa and need rescuing.

  


Miya and Shadow ran over the moment that Reki made it to the top, their faces serious enough that they had to have seen what had happened on the screen.

  


“I’ll drive you two up.”

  


Reki nodded and followed Shadow to his car, ignoring the prying gazes of the rest of the crowd as their little herd escorted Langa out of the mine.

  


Cherry and Joe left them at the car, promising to relay the results of the rest of the night’s races as soon as they could. Reki managed to get Langa lying across the back seats in the approximation of a comfortable position, with his head resting in his lap.

  


Langa was still breathing fine, but he’d showed no signs of waking up. The longer he was out, the more worried Reki could feel himself growing. He’d seen people go down like that before and never return to skating again, though it had never been anyone he’d been particularly close to. But then again, he’d never been as close to anyone else as he had been with Langa before he’d stopped talking to him.

  


“Reki…” The quiet groan came from just below him, where Langa seemed to finally be returning to consciousness.

  


“Are you okay?”

  


“Ah, fuck, my arm hurts…” Langa laughed almost deliriously, the quiet sound drawing Miya’s attention from the front seat, though he kept silent as he watched Langa. It was strange to hear Langa curse like that, with his slurred Canadian accent peeking through.

  


“It’s probably just broken. They’ll be able to fix it at the hospital.”

  


Langa nodded and blinked again slowly. “Reki?”

  


“Yes? I’m here.” He reached down and grabbed Langa’s uninjured hand. He squeezed it gently, a clumsy attempt at reassurance.

  


“Reki, I, uh,” Langa paused, as if trying to gather his thoughts together. “I love you.”

  


“What?” He tried to keep his voice down, but clearly something was up. “Langa, you’re not dying, are you?”

  


Langa laughed again and closed his eyes. “Nope.” It was the last thing he said before he quietened again, either from losing consciousness again, or just pretending to so that Reki could process it in peace.

  


Langa loved him?

  


It seemed a ridiculous fantasy, but he’d said it. Either he had hit his head worse than Reki had thought, or he genuinely liked Reki. Sure, they’d been close for weeks, almost the moment that Langa had turned up. And with Langa being such a quick learner when it came to skating, it was only natural that they’d spend almost every waking hour together.

  


Reki had never dared to really take much more than a peak at his feelings when it came to Langa. The only thing that he’d figured out was that he was terrified of losing him. He’d been so scared that Langa would have ended up hurt badly if he went up against Adam that he’d virtually forced that promise out of him.

  


Perhaps it had been that that was the reason he’d pulled away when he’d seen the others speeding off ahead of him. In truth, he’d always known the others were miles ahead when it came to their skill in skating, but seeing Langa chase after them so easily, to risk everything and somehow still manage to keep pace, had felt like there was something integral that Reki was missing. He’d always felt like Langa had something almost magical about him, something that burned a million times brighter than anyone else, especially when he was on his board.

  


But the feeling of being left behind had been enough that Reki had cut things off before anyone else got the chance to. With Langa, he knew he wouldn’t have been able to watch them drift slowly apart any more than they already had.

  


But this? Langa’s confession changed everything and nothing. It felt like the entire world had somehow shifted with just those three words, but the more Reki looked at it, the more it seemed like the same world, just cast in a new light. The new light of Langa’s feelings.

  


When he thought about it, it made more sense than he’d have liked to admit. They’d been careening towards each other from the moment they’d met, and even when Reki had flinched, expecting Langa to keep racing on past him, all that had happened was that Langa had pulled him in closer.

  


“Right. We’re at the hospital now.” Shadow’s voice knocked Reki out of his reverie.

  


He shifted to pull open the door, then paused when he noticed Langa looking up at him with one of his unreadable expressions. A wave of unexpected heat rushed over his face, and he glanced away, only to be met with another equally impenetrable knowing look from Miya.

  


When he got out, he waited for Langa to tentatively shift himself into a sitting position, before reaching towards Reki with both arms like a helpless child. With an exaggerated sigh, Reki leaned over and pulled Langa back into his arms, letting the injured limb rest in Langa’s lap. Now that Langa was awake, holding him like this felt completely different. From the way that he let his head roll against Reki’s shoulder to how he played with one of the loose toggles on his hoodie, Reki found himself infinitely more aware of every point of contact between the two of them.

  


He tried to force down the flush of hot red that he could feel creeping uncalled for across his face and followed Miya and Shadow into the hospital.

  


***

  


After what felt like hours, but was probably barely more than a few minutes, a nurse came to collect them from the waiting room, completely unfazed at Langa’s position in Reki’s lap. When they’d sat down, Reki had made to shift Langa into his own seat, but Langa had only clung on tighter to Reki’s top and muttered something indecipherable into his neck. So, Reki had left it. A tiny part of him was glad that he didn’t have to let go, but he was not letting in any thoughts of that kind until it was guaranteed that Langa wasn’t hurt too badly.

  


When he deposited Langa onto the bed, the nurse had him recount Langa’s injury. Miya cut in the moment Reki hesitated, offering just enough detail to show how Langa had been hurt without incriminating any of them. As soon as they were finished, the nurse ushered them back to the waiting room, promising them that they’d get to see Langa again as soon as the doctors had checked him over.

  


The three of them ended up back in the waiting room, Reki sandwiched between Miya, who had pulled out a videogame the moment he’d sat down, and Shadow, who was scrolling through his phone with an anxious expression.

  


That left him alone with his thoughts again. And, of course, they all wheeled right back to Langa. Langa, who seemed to be at the centre of everything in his life – the focus of his worries; the one thing that he was chasing after more than skating; the reason that, right now, he had those same three words cycling in the back of his mind. It was both exhilarating and petrifying. He wondered whether Langa would even remember saying it. He’d been through enough already, what with crashing out of his race with Joe, that it wouldn’t be hard for that one little thing to slip his mind.

  


But that one little thing wasn’t leaving Reki alone. Langa liked him – loved him, in fact. Or, at least, he’d said so. He had no idea how he ought to respond to it, but he had to do something. He’d been ignoring Langa for days and even though it would be far too easy to just carry on doing that, Reki knew that he couldn’t. He couldn’t pretend that he’d missed what Langa had said. Or that it had made him feel a way that he hadn’t even considered when it came to Langa before.

  


For now, though, he had perhaps a few hours to figure it all out before Langa would be discharged.

  


“Hey, Reki.”

  


He glanced up, shaken from his thoughts. “Miya?”

  


“You’re thinking about him again, aren’t you?”

  


“Him?”

  


Miya fixed him with a look that blatantly said, _we both know who he is._ “What are you going to do about it?”

  


“It?” It was almost too easy to play dumb with Miya.

  


“I’m not deaf. That old man over there might not have heard Langa, but I did. So, you gonna say it back?” Miya’s mischievous grin made Reki want to push him off the side of the row of seats.

  


“I don’t know. I wasn’t expecting it. And it wasn’t like we were really talking about it before.”

  


“It was obvious, though. Well, until you fucked off and started moping all by yourself.”

  


“Miya!” He could definitely have found a nicer way to put it.

  


“What? You act like you don’t swear. And it’s true. You were like a proper married couple. Well, maybe not as married as Joe and Cherry, but still. You were clinging to each other all the time at the beach.”

  


Reki shrugged. “But it didn’t really mean anything. We’re friends. We hugged. It’s not like we ever kissed or anything. I don’t know. With Langa, it just seems like that sort of thing could mean anything. He might not have even meant what he said in a, you know, kind of way.”

  


“A romantic way?” Miya snorted. “Come on, that was the gayest thing I’ve seen in a long time. And I had to wait with Cherry and Joe for ages before that. So, pretty gay.”

  


“Fuck off.” It was a half-hearted insult, but Reki knew what Miya was getting at. “You really think he meant it like that? Not just like, you’re my best friend, type of thing?”

  


“God, Reki. He clearly likes you. Look,” Miya paused to lean across Reki and prod Shadow in the side, hard enough that he yelped before putting down his phone and scowling at the two of them.

  


“What?”  
  


“Who does Langa like?”

  


“Reki.”

  


He didn’t even hesitate. This was ridiculous. Reki cut in, “No, he means, who does Langa have a crush on? Like, romantically.”

  


“Still you. Why? Was it supposed to be a secret?”

  


“See? He obviously likes you. It’s just a question of what you’re going to do about it.” Miya made it sound like it was some easy thing – to just decide how he felt about it and then confess the whole thing to Langa.

  


Reki shrugged, waiting for Miya to get bored again and return to his game. But, like the stubborn pain he was, he just sat there, staring at Reki expectantly until Reki cracked. “I still don’t know, Miya. It’s not that easy.”

  


“Really? You like him, he likes you. Everyone else can tell, so you don’t have to waste any energy trying to keep it a secret.” Miya froze for a second, some kind of realization crossing his mind. “Wait. You do like him, right?”

  


“What?” The toggles of his hoodie suddenly seemed very interesting.

  


Miya sighed. “Oh, come on. You’ve been sulking all week. Fine, you don’t have to admit it now-” he was getting all superior again- “but just know that I already know you’re in love with him so-”

  


“In love?” Reki spluttered. This conversation just had to keep getting worse. “I’d never even thought of it like that, and now I’m in love with him? Like, yeah sure, I guess I am and all, but…”

  


And then he realised what he’d just said.

  


Miya’s smug grin was the most insufferable thing he’d ever had to look at. If he’d wanted to shove him off his chair before, Reki wanted to boot him off the face of the earth now. Instead, he restrained his violent urges and pressed his hands to his face. All this emotional stuff seemed to be piling on so quickly, and everyone else seemed to have already made some kind of opinion on it.

  


***

  


“Kyan Reki?” A nurse had come from the direction of Langa’s ward.

  


He got to his feet, shortly followed by Miya and Shadow. The nurse sent him a quick look of confusion, but he just nodded. “They’re with me.”

  


When they got to the room Langa was in, he was sat up in the cot, looking relatively fine other than a fresh splint wrapped around one wrist and a vaguely exhausted look on his face. It smoothed over the moment Reki came in, replaced by a gentle smile. “Reki.”

  


“You okay now?” He sat himself down in the chair by the bed.

  


“I’ve just got a fractured arm and a concussion, I think?”

  


The nurse nodded in agreement as he noted down a few things onto the pad he was holding and left them alone with Langa.

  


“So, any news on the rest of the race?”

  


Of course Langa’s worry would go straight to that. He wasn’t so injured that his mind didn’t jump straight to skating, at least.

  


“Well,” Shadow started, “since Miya came over here with us before he got a chance to do his race, they’re holding off the race with him in it. Apparently Adam’s pissed that people are messing with it, but Joe and Cherry managed to convince him to hold off until we made sure you were okay.”

  


“Oh. Right.” He slumped further down into the bed. “If you need to go back, the doctors said I’ll be fine. They just want to keep me in overnight to make sure my head doesn’t turn out to be worse than it looks at the moment. You’d better get back before Adam kicks you out of the tournament.”

  


Miya nodded and turned to go, shooting Reki an insistent look before disappearing out of the door ahead of Shadow.

  


“Make sure you recover properly before trying anything stupid again.” Shadow nodded to Reki. “And you’d better get your shit together and stop hiding away all the time.”

  


And then it was just Reki and Langa. For a moment, Reki sat there, debating whether he should just blurt it right out or wait for Langa to show some sign of remembering what he’d said.

  


But before he could come to a decision, Langa cut through the silence. “They’ve called my mum. I think she’s gonna be here soonish.”

  


“Oh. So, do you want me to go? I can get out of the way if you want.”

  


Langa shifted, his good hand reaching out and grabbing Reki by the wrist. “No. Stay. Please,” he glanced away. “At least until she gets here.”

  


“Okay.” Reki sank back into his seat, letting himself flop against the side of Langa’s bed, his head resting against the side of Langa’s pillow.

  


Langa rolled over slowly so that he was facing Reki. “It’ll only be a little while.” A small, tired smile hovered over his lips before he closed his eyes, as if he were going to fall asleep right there, still holding onto Reki’s hand.

  


***

  


“Hello? Langa!”

  


The worried voice of Langa’s mother woke Reki from his half-dozed haze.

  


A brown-haired woman stood by the door; a look of concern written plainly across her face. It broke out into a relieved smile as Langa woke up, groaning sleepily as if it had been hours that they had been waiting for.

  


“Mum?” Langa’s groggy voiced was met with a tight hug as she went over and flung her arms around her son, barely missing his injured arm.

  


When they let go, Langa’s mum straightened, turning to Reki. “You must be Reki. I’m Nanako, Langa’s mum.”

  


Reki smiled and sat up further in his seat, about to reply when she enveloped him in a hug of his own. In the moment that she held him, he heard the words whispered into his ears: “Thank you for looking after my son.”

  


She pulled apart and sent a secretive sort of smile towards Langa, which elicited a frown and a slight red flush across Langa’s face. It was a surprise to see Langa blushing at all. Reki had to push aside the urge to ask what it was about.

  


“So, you weren’t doing anything too dangerous, were you?”

  


“Oh, ah, no.”

  


His mother laughed. “Well, I guess it’s a bit late asking that now, since we’re in here already. I’m guessing it has something to do with skateboarding?”

  


The two of them nodded.

  


“Until you’re healed, you won’t be able to do much of that, Langa.” For a moment, genuine worry seemed to cross her face, momentarily blooming before being smoothed over by another smile. “You’re like your father. He always used to get himself bashed up snowboarding. I suppose it was obvious that you’d follow in his footsteps.”

  


When they exchanged another unreadable look, Reki shifted in his seat. Langa didn’t need him here anymore. It would be so easy to just slip outside and not come back.

  


As if aware of his intention to bolt, Nanako turned to Reki. “You probably need to get home, don’t you? Do you need a lift?”

  


Reki hesitated. The hospital was miles away from his house, but he’d probably make it back within an hour if he skated. “I’m fine, thanks. It’s not too far from here. And it’s pretty much all downhill,” he smiled awkwardly and gestured towards the board propped against his chair.

  


As Reki grabbed his board and headed for the door, he paused one last time. “I’ll see you tomorrow then, Langa? Will you be in school?”

  


“Dunno. I’ll text you when the doctor decides.” He frowned, his mind clearly drifting elsewhere. Then, as if something had lit up inside his brain, “Shit!”

  


“Langa!” His mum seemed more surprised than horrified by his outburst.

  


“Sorry. Reki, I left my bike behind. Someone’ll nick it if I leave it there.”

  


“I’ll call Joe or someone for you. They’ll be able to get it back.” Reki wasn’t sure how they’d manage it, but they would be able to figure something out. “See you later, then. Nice meeting you, too,” he added.

  


***

  


As soon as school finished the next day, Reki went straight up to the hospital. Apparently, the doctors had wanted to keep Langa in there just a bit longer to make sure there was no lasting damage, which had meant that Reki had been alone all day.

  


It was far better than ignoring Langa, but his absence had still had an impact. He’d had about half their class come up to him, asking where Langa had gone. Most of them never spoke to him normally, but he guessed anyone would be interested when it came to Langa. And they’d been glued to each other for long enough that he was the obvious first person to ask.

  


When he finally made it to the top of the hill that the hospital was perched on the top of, he had just enough energy to hurry to Langa’s ward.

  


He stopped short when he noticed a tall, dark blue-haired idiot talking to one of the receptionists. Adam might not have been in his absurd matador getup, but it was obvious that it was him, even in the fancy suit.

  


There was no way that he could have just happened to turn up to this hospital. He was here for Langa – either to coerce him back into the tournament or try to hurt him some other way.

  


The only thing that Reki could do was try to sneak past him and get to Langa before he could. He just about managed it to, by sticking to the far side of the entrance room and then dashing to where he knew Langa was waiting.

  


“What’s happened?” Langa seemed to perk up the moment Reki burst through the door. He was in his own clothes now – the hospital gown was gone, a reassuring sign that Langa was already on the way to getting better.

  


“Adam’s here. I think he’s looking for you,” Reki replied, already slamming the door shut behind him. He doubted a closed door would be enough to keep Adam away, but if it looked enough like the room was busy, there was a chance he might miss it.

  


“Oh.” Langa frowned. “I mean, I lost the race against Joe. It’s not like I’d be going back into the tournament even if I hadn’t injured myself.”

  


Reki nodded, though he imagined Adam would happily come up with any kind of ridiculous excuse to keep up his creepy obsession with Langa. He slumped down against the door. Of course Adam had to barge in and ruin everything.

  


Barely a minute later, a knock came from the other side of the door.

  


“Oh god, it’s him, isn’t it?”

  


“I don’t know. You can probably see through the window better than I can,” Reki shot back, still holding himself against the door.

  


When the knock went unanswered, Adam pushed against the door, with enough force that Reki had to dig his heels into the linoleum floor to stop himself from being shoved aside. Langa, as helpful as he was, sat on his bed doing nothing.

  


“Do you think we should see what he wants? He’ll probably go away sooner if we do.”

  


“Really?” Reki shifted again, trying to resist Adam-s renewed efforts to get inside. If this went on much longer, someone else would notice what was going on and force them to let Adam in. “Fine.”

  


He waited until Adam stopped pushing then opened the door a crack, only to be faced with a miserable-looking secretary about to shove the door open again while Adam leaned back easily against another wall.

  


“What do you want?” He scowled between the both of them.

  


“Ah, you’re Snow’s friend. I’m here to see my beloved Eve.”

  


Reki’s expression didn’t change. “He doesn’t want to see you. He got hurt in your tournament. Why don’t you just leave him alone?”

  


“Oh ho,” Adam drawled, walking up to the door as if expecting Reki to just swing it open for him. “But it was you who caused him to get hurt.”

  


Reki blanched.

  


“I saw on the cameras that he was looking at you right before he went down. You distracted my dear Snow, and that’s why he crashed.” He pushed the door again, but Reki was too frozen to stop him.

  


Had it really been his fault that Langa had got hurt? He hadn’t expected Langa to be able to pick him out of the crowd at all – he’d been far enough back and in dull enough clothes that there was no way he would have stood out. But still, it had been Langa noticing him that had meant he’d crashed. Adam might have been a piece of shit, but he wasn’t wrong about that.

  


“You realise that if you stopped harassing him all the time Langa would be fine. I wouldn’t have been so worried about him going to the tournament if you weren’t so obsessed with him.”

  


Adam paused, then laughed. “I’m trying to push Snow to be the perfect Eve for me. He’s so close, I can practically feel the Eden waiting for us.”

  


“He’s not yours to train. And he’s not going anywhere with you.”

  


“And who are you to stop him? You didn’t even enter the tournament. How do you expect to protect someone who’s already so far ahead of you that you don’t have the slightest hope of catching up, let alone keeping him from his destiny with me?”

  


Reki made the move before his brain even registered the idea in his head, pushing his fist towards Adam’s face with a strength that was part adrenaline and all anger.

  


For just a moment, Reki couldn’t hold himself back. Perhaps it was that Adam had hit just a little bit too close to the mark, or the fact that someone desperately needed to put him in his place. But seeing Adam sprawled on the floor outside the door gave a certain amount of satisfaction, before he slammed it shut in his face.

  


“Reki!”

  


He slid down to the floor. He hadn’t meant to lash out quite that much.

  


“Reki?” Langa had got out of bed, and was now sinking to the floor alongside him. “Are you okay?”

  


He looked up. “Is it bad that that was really satisfying?”

  


Langa smiled, an almost relieved look on his face. “Probably not. It was actually kinda hot seeing you go off like that for me.”

  


Reki swung his head round to stare at Langa, surprise overriding the urge to hide the heat rising to his face. “What?”

  


“Huh?” Langa’s voice sounded almost normal, but his eyes were glued to the floor. “You managed to get rid of him for me. Thanks.”

  


“It’s nothing. He was being an ass anyway. Well, he’s always like that, you know. Surprised no-one else has punched him before.”

  


“Um, Reki, what did he say to you? I heard a bit of it, but right after, you looked so…” Langa trailed off, his gaze still focused on the ground. “I’m sorry. You don’t have to say anything about it if you don’t want, it was just that, if he tried to hurt you again, I don’t know what I’d do.”

  


Reki gave himself a minute to just sit there next to Langa, half leaning against him, the whole rest of the world shut about behind him. Eventually, he mustered the courage to say, “he was just threatening to try and take you away. I know I’m not good enough for you, that you deserve a partner who can keep up, but I guess I’m just too scared to let you leave me behind.”

  


This time, Langa actually faced him head on, his one good hand tilting Reki’s chin slightly so that all he could see was Langa. “Reki. I never want to leave you behind. If it weren’t for you, I’d still be lost somewhere. You gave me skating when I didn’t have anything else. And I swear, even if I rush off sometimes, I’ll always come back to you.”

  


Langa’s blue eyes took up the whole of Reki’s vision, and his words took up the whole of his heart. He’d forced Langa to make the wrong promise before – putting skate between them had been an idiotic move. But this promise, the promise that Langa would always come back to him, this was one worth keeping. He didn’t have to run after Langa if he knew that he wasn’t going to be left behind. He didn’t have to give up skating because he couldn’t keep up with the rest if Langa promised to come back for him. And he didn’t have to be alone anymore, because Langa would be there.

  


Another knock came at the door, this one much gentler than Adam’s.

  


Hurriedly, Reki pulled away from Langa and got to his feet, only just pulling Langa up in time before the same nurse as the night before poked his head inside.

  


“Just to let you know that you’re ready to be discharged now. Make sure that you’ve got someone keeping an eye on you just in case, though it seems like you’ll probably be fine, and avoid doing anything that could hurt your arm anymore.” His gaze went pointedly to the skateboard tucked under Reki’s arm.

  


Langa smiled. “Thank you. Is it okay if we go now, then?”

  


The nurse nodded, then led them to the front desk. A brief signature to say that Langa had been let out, and then they were gone.

  


They ambled slowly down the hill back towards their houses, neither of them in any great hurry to head off in their separate directions. With the sun shining down on brightly on them, Reki couldn’t help but feel that perhaps all the mess of the past few days had resolved itself.

  


Adam was gone, for now. The others seemed unfazed at his sudden return last night. And, most importantly, Langa definitely didn’t hate him.

  


That was something he still hadn’t quite figured out how to address, but when they approached their usual skate park, abnormally quiet given the bright weather and long hours before nightfall, Reki knew that he didn’t want to wait any longer.

  


“Hey, Langa.” He tugged him towards the copse of trees just behind the park. As long as they made it out of sight before anyone who might have recognised Langa from S saw them, they’d be fine.

  


“What is it?” Langa asked, as soon as Reki was sure they were far enough away that no-one would see them. “Did something else happen?”

  


“No. I mean, yes, kind of, but it’s not anything- ugh.” He paused and started again. How on earth was he supposed to say this sort of thing? “Ok. Do you remember anything from after falling off your board before getting to the hospital?”

  


“Uh…” Reki could visibly see Langa’s mind retracing the events of the night before. When Langa’s eyes widened, meeting Reki’s, Reki knew he’d recalled that particular moment. “Oh.” His gaze dropped back down to the floor, raking over the ground and anywhere that wasn’t Reki’s face. “Uh, sorry about that, I must have-”

  


“No.” Reki cut him off. “You don’t need to apologise. For anything.”

  


When Langa finally looked back up again, Reki couldn’t help himself. He grabbed Langa by the neck of his shirt, pulling him in until he was right there. Until they were kissing.

  


For just a second, Langa was still, and Reki felt a rising tide of panic start to surge. What if Langa hadn’t meant it at all that way? What if he’d just ruined every-

  


And then Langa leaned in further, melting into Reki’s touch. And everything else was gone – all thought except for the feeling of Langa right there, the warmth of him on his lips, the feel of Langa’s hand sneaking into his hair, Reki’s own pulling Langa closer until they toppled, falling against a tree. The one hand that was pinned between their chests could feel the race of Langa’s heartbeat, pulsing through everything as they met. It was messy, and hot, and perfect. Reki couldn’t think of anything but Langa, Langa right there, in his arms, holding each other as the rest of the world faded, insignificant against this feeling.

  


When eventually they pulled apart for longer than just tiny half-seconds gasping for air, the look of unabated elation on Langa’s face was enough that Reki almost wanted to dive back in and do it all again. He didn’t know when exactly his hand had slipped up the back of Langa’s top to the warm spot right in the middle of his back, or when Langa’s legs had left the ground and wrapped themselves around him, but now Langa was stuck between him and the tree behind.

  


“What I meant to say was that,” Reki started, as soon as his breath had evened out enough that he could talk properly, “Langa, I love you.”


End file.
